The Rooted Design Fellowship is a leadership pathway for interdisciplinary built environment professionals, land stewards, and artists in the movement for design, land, and climate justice.

It is run in partnership between Open Architecture Collaborative and Foxfire Ranch. Deep in North Mississippi Hill Country, fellows are invited to rest, reflect, and grow their practice of relationship driven design, community engagement, and traditional and embodied design practices.

Workshops spans shared mindsets, foundational learning, and infrastructure visioning for that will support building projects, growing climate resilient stewardship practices, and cultural preservation at Foxfire Ranch and their personal practices. They also are immersed in Foxfire Ranch’s community, including the historical Black community of “Dark Corner”, and Black, Indigenous, and brown land sites in the region.

This fellowship grew out of OAC ‘s pilot Equity in Practice Fellowship run in 2023-2024. OAC’s reflections and feedback from the fellows led us to create this partnership with Foxfire Ranch. You can learn about the pilot cohort and fellowship projects here.

Application cycle is currently closed.